It means that you have the right to not let the government or the state or anyone snoop on you or your data without your consent, simply because privacy is a very important part of your right to live freely and with personal liberty.

For more than two years, petitioners have challenged the constitutionality of Aadhaar in the Supreme Court on the ground that it violates people's privacy by forcing them to scan their fingerprints and irises and their personal details into a database that both the government and private companies can access.

The Indian government had argued against the petitioners by saying that privacy was an "elitist concept" and that Indians had "no absolute right" over their own bodies.

For instance, you can now legally push back against unreasonable restrictions like being forced to link your Aadhaar number to your PAN card if you — and most privacy experts — are worried about the privacy implications of a government program that collects personal and biometric data of a billion-plus people and stores it in an online database.

Not yet. A smaller bench will be deciding whether the government has the right to access citizen data using the Aadhaar. But, the fact that India's highest court thinks that you have a right to privacy is definitely a setback for the Aadhaar program.

Yes! What makes this ruling ~EPIC~ is that it gives teeth — big, long, sharp ones — to arguments on various issues, like marital rape, euthanasia, who we love, what we eat (cough*beefban*cough), and more.

No, don't get so enthu so fast. The Supreme Court has simply said that they interpret the "right to life" (Article 21!) as including a "right to privacy". How it's specifically applied will depend on judges who debate future cases that come up, where it's relevant. We've got to wait and watch.

What's for sure is: Aadhaar just ran into a HUGE speedbump, and equal rights for LGBTQ folks has a better shot than ever.